Imagination
by AndImTheQueenOfSheba
Summary: I have an extremely vivid imagination. Once I convince myself of something, that's how it is. I only see it the way I want to. I wanted to think that Jake still loved me, and so I did. That's what I wanted, so that's what I saw. ...Anti-Jiley Oneshot...


**_Ah, okay, so did everybody die, or what? Where ARE you guys? I felt like I had some funerals to go to after I looked through the archives last night, way back to the beginning, when there were like, three stories in this category...too bad I deleted like, half of mine, or I'd be way back there too...But it's sad, because Millie and I are the only ancients left...and people only remember Millie, cause I've changed my dang PN so many times! _**

**_So anyway...I'm making a comeback, okay? People WILL read this...all 1,976 words of it, okay?_**

**_IMPORTANT NOTE: Don't give up before finishing, alright? It's SUPPOSED to be corny in the beginning._**

I know he still loves me. He has to. Why else would he be staring at me like that? If he_ didn't _love me, he would probably be looking at somebody else, and I would be feeling way more jealousy than I am feeling right now.

Jake still loves me, and I know it. So what if it's been two years since we last spoke? He loves me, and that's that. I know it's true. It has to be.

So I guess I should admit that I love him as much as he _surely_ loves me. I'm not as secretive, when it comes to my feelings, as I used to be. I just can't seem to hide them anymore. That, of course, is altogether his fault. I don't care though. I can't blame him for it. How can you blame anything on the person that loves you? I can't blame Jake, because he loves me, and he can't go wrong. I know in my heart that he loves me, and that he never stopped.

If he _didn't _love me, would he be coming over here to talk to me? To tell me that my love is not unrequited? There's no doubt in my mind that that's what he's doing.

I silently stare at him as he slides into the seat across from me at the lunch table. Maybe it _is _a good thing Lilly's sick today. If she were here, this would be extremely awkward. Getting a late grade on our English project because she had it isn't going to be that bad after all.

"Miley..." He whispered, leaning forward, staring intently at me. I couldn't have moved my eyes If I'd wanted to. They were glued to his beautiful face. The face that surely loved me.

"Jake?" I whispered, mimicking him. The corners of his mouth turned upward, ever so slightly, and I just about died. It's weird, I've never felt this way about anybody before. Even when we were going out, my feelings weren't this strong. Whoever said "You won't miss it 'til it's gone" sure knew what they were talking about.

He's not gone though. He's right in front of me, about to tell me he loves me, he's changed, and he's ready for me now. I know he is. He has to be. Why would he be sitting here, across from me, staring at me that way, if he wasn't going to tell me that?

"Miley, I've changed. I know I have. It's been too long, but if you'll have me..." He told me, staring into my eyes.

"I...ummm...of course I will Jake." I assured him, my heart doing jumping jacks inside my chest, delaying my speech. He smiled gleefully, his incredibly white teeth shining like the sun. He enclosed my small, compared to his, hand in his large, warm, rough one, and said,

"I would ask you to marry me right now if I wasn't so sure you'd say no." His eyes were still narrow, and the corners of his mouth, still upturned.

"What makes you think I'd say no?" I asked him, smirking, back to my normal self. I could feel my heart rate changing dramatically.

"Well, two reasons. One...We're too young...and two...we'd need your dad's permission, and you know better than I do that he would never in a million years give it."

"He'd rather swallow a porcupine whole." I agreed, realizing how impossible my dad was. He loved me too, just not as much as Jake. If dad saw how much Jake loved me, he would force Jake to marry me. He wouldn't care how young we are, he'd see how happy we make each other, and he'd want me to live happily ever after, just like in the fairy tales.

"I love you anyway...I always have." He told me, smiling. My heart sped up a little. I couldn't believe this was happening. It was so corny, straight out of the movies, but at the same time, it was the most amazing thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life. I've said that a lot, but this time, something totally different from all the other times, I'm sure of it.

"Ditto." I replied, smiling at him. "I love you too."

What a dream come true. NOT.

_This _is what really happened.

As true as my love for Jake may be, his love for me is completely the opposite. One hundred percent false. Jake does not love me, and he never will. Jake loves himself, and nobody else. Not even me.

I have an extremely vivid imagination. Once I convince myself of something, that's how it is. I only see it the way I want to. I wanted to think that Jake still loved me, and so I did. That's what I wanted, so that's what I saw.

"Miley..." He whispers, sitting across from me at the table, making sure he is as inconspicuous as possible, so that nobody notices him talking to me. What a tragic blow to his ego would it be, if somebody saw him talking to me, his ex-girlfriend, the one person who loves him for who he is on the inside, and not for who he is on the outside. Oh god, I'm his mother.

"Jake..." I whisper back, realizing that the look on his face means that he is going to say something I won't like. My heart starts tearing right then and there. I have a feeling I know what he's going to say.

"Miley, I've changed. I promised you I would, and I did...just not in the way you wanted me to. I...I realized that...I don't have the same feelings for you as I used to. I'm a different person, and now that I've realized just how easily I can have you...I don't want that...you deserve somebody who has to work for you. Somebody other than me."

The tiny crack that had started in my heart grew, nearly crippling me in the process. I couldn't believe it. All this time, I'd watched him, waiting for him to tell me he was ready, that he thought he'd changed enough. That he was ready for me. And it turns out he wasn't. He'd moved past that, and was ready for somebody else. Somebody who wasn't me. This was horrible. This was crap. I hate him, I really do. Who knew your feelings for a person could change so much in such little time.

He reached out and covered my hand with his. It felt so dry and cold, like him. I wanted to pull my hand away, but the pain I was feeling had nearly paralyzed me. I couldn't move. I couldn't even pick my jaw up off the ground. I must've looked so pathetic. I wasn't _that _surprised. It'd been over two years since he'd gone off to "make himself worthy." I knew somewhere, deep inside, that he'd given up on that along time ago. I'd just tried to deny it for so long, because it wasn't what I wanted to hear.

"I'm sorry...I know I've probably kept you waiting for way too long, trying to ready myself, only to decide I'm way _too _ready...and I'm sure hearing this is probably breaking your heart, I mean, I know you love me, everybody does...but I'm sorry, alright?"

He's _sure? _He _knows I love him?_ How is he so positive? What makes him think that? Does _everybody _have to love him? Why is he so _sure?_

You know what? I don't love him. I _do_ _not _love him. I hate him. Hatred is the only feeling connecting me and Jake Ryan at this precise moment in time. I wish he was caught underneath the fabric in this wrinkle in time. I wish it'd smash and tear off his legs, and hold him there until somebody with a gigantic iron smoothed it out, burning him to a crisp. I wish I had an iron, because I'd smooth his pretty little face out, burning it all up, wrinkle or not.

"You're _sure? _Who's been feeding you that crap? Does everybody have to love you, or what? You're the same jerk you always were, but this time...you're a soggy jerk." I hissed angrily. I stood up, and, before he could process what I'd said, I poured the glass of disgusting lemonade I'd bought with my lunch, for no reason other than to stare at it, on his head.

"Oooooh"s broke out across the lunch room, mixing in with the surprised, disbelieving screeching, and the laughing.

He looked completely shocked, which made me even more angry. What made him think he didn't deserve this? He did deserve this. He'd picked my heart up out of the frozen mud and warmed it up, before leaving it to sit for two years, waiting for him to pick it up again, and when he did, all he did was break it into tiny little pieces and throw it back in the mud. What a waste.

_How dare I deface him. How dare I get his hair wet. How dare I make him look so stupid._ I'm sure that's what he's thinking. That the kind of things people like Jake, with egos like Jake, think.

I dare, because I care, okay? I care about my feelings, no matter how much he doesn't.

"What was that for?" He yelled at me, standing up, hitting his knees on the bar underneath the table. I hope it hurt. I hope he cracked his stupid little patellas.

"I think you know." I whispered, before I angrily slid my lunch tray across the table, making sure it slid off of the edge, so as to splatter him in disgusting processed meats and other cafeteria food.

I stood up angrily, making my way past the staring, unbelievably nosy people in the room, who, for some reason, hadn't seen through him, and were surprised by this.

I made my way to the bathroom, leaving the chaos of the lunchroom behind.

I'd have a lot to tell Lilly tomorrow, but she had the most important thing to tell me. Lilly was going to explain to me how I could let Jake break my heart into a million pieces, and still love him, with all the little pieces.

* * *

**_Alright, so this was short, but I wanted to write something, and this idea had been floating around for a while, so I used it. _**


End file.
